Recently, many electronic devices for home use have been able to be controlled by remote control units. For example, audiovisual devices including television receivers, video tape recorders, compact disc players, and video disc players, and other devices including air-conditioning units and lighting devices can be controlled by remote control units.
As a result, each home has may remote control units, and the user has difficulty in finding a place to keep them in.
One remote control unit that has been proposed to solve the problem has a ROM for storing control signals for a plurality of electronic devices so that those electronic devices can be controlled by the single remote control unit. The remote control unit has switches assigned to the respective controllable electronic devices. When the user operates one of the switches, the remote control unit can control the electronic device which corresponds to the operated switch.
There has also been known a programmable remote control unit which can be operated by the user as desired to store control signals for certain electronic devices in a RAM.
The remote control unit with its ROM storing control signals for a plurality of electronic devices is required to have many switches and buttons if it is to be able to control many electronic devices. For controlling a desired one of the electronic devices, the user has difficulty in selecting a corresponding one of the switches and buttons. Therefore, the remote control unit is poor in its operability and tends to large in size.